Suhair Khan | Google Arts and Culture | Women series
“I feel that on the one hand, it’s more about the artist, the artwork, and the history of a place, and on the other, for most of us who don’t have the chance to be in these places, it just buys you opportunities to enter these worlds.”
The Connection to Material Culture
Well, personally speaking, I am not very cool or trendy. I do like old things, and that reflects in the kinds of things I prefer to wear. I care more about something being meaningful to me rather just acquiring something. I care about heritage and how we present ourselves. This is becoming more and more important every day -- to be able to represent your heritage and your culture, and to stand out in a way that shows how beautiful and unique you are. I think that old and vintage and antique showcases this better than anything else.
I have also started to think more about sustainability. I don’t have answers, but we all need to be more thoughtful in how we consume and what we consume, if we have the luxury of doing it at all. Because of all the distractions in our lives and all the technologies we are surrounded by, we are becoming less and less mindful of where we are at the moment, and constantly looking at what we want next, where we want to go next. So, if we do make thoughtful choices in what we acquire, and are lucky enough to find something old and valuable, we need to take care of it and be mindful of it. I think what I’m trying to talk about is just the practice of being more present to, and valuing things which feel beautiful and important and special. I don’t think I do it enough, but I’m realizing the importance of this more and more with time.
The Next Five Years
Well, hopefully there will be more and more documentation of culture around the world, and most importantly, this will help in preserving these things. Google Arts and Culture will continue to play an important role in this. I think it’s a very special, non Western-centric mission, with a lot of focus on Africa, India, Japan, Korea and South-East Asia. The goal is to be as global as possible. We do want to work on the US, Germany, France and the UK, and I think that vision will also probably expand.
As we all know, not every culture has a museum, not every culture has had paintings. So how do we think of new ways of defining culture and sharing that it’s representative of how we also have to find our own heritage and culture. I think of this as an ongoing journey; as technology becomes better, faster and more affordable, we can probably do this in more creative ways. That’s where I see it going.
We are also planning to do a bit more in terms of physical activation, and hence our presence at the London Design Festival. Last year we had set up a really cool physical installation at Trafalgar Square, where I had used machine learning and poetry and created a physical manifestation of both these things. Then there’s also the work of bringing all of it online and making it accessible for anyone in the world to explore. You might see a bit more of that.
At the end of the day, our goal is access, and that will continue to be an overarching goal. If you have the app, if you go online, you should be able to see it.
Cultural IP
In the 50s, Dior had taken the saree and made it into a beautiful dress. Personally, I think that if it’s done tastefully and if something beautiful and magical emerges at the end of it, it is what it is.
I think that when you are working with artisans and craftspeople in their own environment, what is really important is that certain standards are put in place, that they are treated with respect and valued for their work. What’s worrying for me is the idea of allowing large organisations and/or brands to come in and use these extremely talented people without valuing their work. I hope that we continue to think about this question and find alternatives, so that these people and their crafts neither die out nor get exploited. In my opinion, this is one area we should really pay attention to.
Other than this, I think art inspires, just as architecture and design are in turn inspired by nature and science. There has to be an interaction and a fusion. We live in a globalized world, and need to act thoughtfully. I guess that’s my take on it.
We met with Suhair Khan at the Google London office, who leads global initiatives and partnerships at Google Arts & Culture. Her diverse work within art, culture, and technology got us curious on her viewpoints on global identity and material culture.
In her words:
Beginning
I have been involved with Google Arts and Culture for many years now. For me, the idea of technology as a platform for hunting stories, artefacts, objects and buildings has been very fascinating. I feel that the more time we spend working on technology, the more power we generate to change the world in a really positive way (if leveraged correctly!). Also, because I have lived in many places and have a bit of a diverse heritage, I’m always drawn to the idea of how culture, art, architecture and design define how we live and connect with each other, how we build our own identities. Because of all this, my work, which exists at the intersection of art/culture and technology, is really inspiring for me.
Global identity and Celebrating Diversity
I think I am lucky; I feel a very strong connection to South Asia, where I’m from. I would rather wear a saree and not a dress to someone’s wedding. But at the same time, there is a little bit of a disconnect when you have lived in many places. Your sense of identity shifts a little bit. I have been in the US for eleven years and I think you just have to get used to it. It’s almost a natural transition for most of us now with social media. I think it’s hard for many of us because the internet and social media continue to feel that because we have more and more access to different cultures. There is a lot more fusion in the sense of what culture means.
Accessible Culture
I feel that on the one hand it’s more about the artist, the artwork, and the history of a place, and on the other, for most of us who don’t have the chance to be in these places, it just buys you opportunities to enter these worlds. We are doing a lot of things nowadays with augmented reality and artificial intelligence, using technology to create more sophisticated ways of sorting through large amounts of data or artefacts, and creating experiences that could never be possible in a museum. This March we launched an augmented reality experience in partnership with CERN in Switzerland. Narrated by the actress Tilda Swinton, it was the experience of the Big Bang. It was super dreamy, very beautiful and also very educational. Nowadays we can actually have an experience of AR or of the Big Bang through our phones! Though none of us are going to be able to actually see the Big Bang, there are these things you can do to represent – in this case, science, technology, and discovery – in a way that is unique, and you can carry it around with you.
Our Mission with Google Arts and Culture
I think the mission has always been to make the world’s cultural information accessible to anyone, anywhere. It’s so much more than just documenting and sharing; technology has become far more sophisticated, and it’s become a storytelling tool for cultural institutions. We don’t monetise the platform, and work only with not-for-profit institutions. Obviously we cannot cover all of the cultures worldwide; we cannot even define it. Our goal is to give them the means to share their stories in a way that feels meaningful and important.
We started off with art museums and went on to cover performing art institutions. We have worked on natural history and fashion, and are continuing to build those on the magic areas. We can’t cover everything, but we hope to start and sustain a space where these fields are accessible in a way that is interesting, fun, and also informative.
Connecting Cultures and Global Peace
We hope that with our fashion tour project, people feel that there is a connection to another culture. We did a project last year with Turquoise Mountain Trust in Kabul, Afghanistan. This was led by my colleague who is an archaeologist. All of his work is built around preserving heritage at risk; this involves looking at buildings, objects or museums that are under threat from anything like climate change, war or tourism. This is the sort of amazing space we are creating; we are exploring how technology can be used to help people understand the past and each other better, and mobilize them to preserve culture. And making inaccessible places accessible like we captured Kabul using 3D imaging. Or for markets, people can see details such as the woodwork and the craftsmanship behind a lot of the crafts that are now all dying. So this is just the work of illuminating cultures that feel very distant and very foreign. I don’t know about world peace -- that’s a goal we don’t have yet. But we hope to open up new worlds to people, literally.
The Cultural Boom
The art world is growing exponentially every day, and the art market is huge. People obviously want to celebrate their cultures and share them, and I think there is probably a desire in people to connect more. I don’t know if every country is similar in this respect, but there are more fairs now. In Asia, for example, and in Africa. Some of them are focussed on photography, some on craftsmanship, others on art and architecture. It’s really hard to measure what is happening and why, but hopefully it means that more people are accessing these things. If the market grows and people invest more on art and culture, it can only be a good thing I think.
